'Dichteliebe' - Schumann. (Poet's Love)
1.
How lovely is the month of May
when all the buds are bursting.
within my heart is rising
the love of which I'm thirsting.
How lovely is the month of May
when all the birds are singing.
I told my love the secret
of my desire and longing.
2.
Where ere my tears are falling
the flowers of my love will soon throng,
and in my sighing rises a
Nightingale's sweet song.
And if my dear child you love me,
all the flowers to you I'll bring,
and before your window in chorus
the Nightingale shall sing.
3.
The rose and the lily, the dove and the sun-
once I loved with my heart, yes I loved everyone.
I love them no more, I give all my love to the
dearest, the fairest, the purist, the only one.
She is my own delightful love, she is my rose
and my lily my sun and my dove.
Yes, I give all my love to the dearest
the fairest, the purist, the only one, the only one.
4.
I look once more into your eyes
and all my pain and sorrow flies;
and when I kiss those lips adored
my very being is restored.
When I recline upon your breast
comes all delight and heavenly rest.
But when you say: 'I love thee',
then I must weep most bitterly.
5. I'll plunge my soul deeply
in the lily's petals divine.
The lily shall echo my sighing,
the song of this love of mine.
That song shall flutter and quiver
like the trembling of her kiss.
The kiss that she once gave me
in wonderful sweetest bliss.
6.
The Rhine most sacred of rivers
reflects the shimmering stone.
That vast and spired cathedral,
that great and holy Cologne.
Inside there stands a portrait
on golden leather so bright
which on my life's own wilderness
sheds kindliest rays of light.
Above our lady angels hover and
round her flowers grow;
the eyes soft reflection the
lips and complexion reminds me
of the one I used to know.
7.
No grudge I bear although my heart
must break.
For ever lost is love. I bear no grudge.
I saw you shine in diamonds splendour bright,
Yet not one ray falls in your hearts dark night.
I've known it long.
No grudge I bear although my heart
must break.
In dreams when I am sleeping I see the night
that in your soul is creeping.
I see the serpent feeding on your heart,
I see my love how wretched now you are.
No grudge I bear within my heart.
8.
If only the tiniest flowers
could know my pain and my grief,
I'm sure they would weep with me
to help me find relief.
If nightingales also knew it
how sick I am and how sad,
they would relieve all my sorrow
with songs to make me glad.
And If they knew my sadness
the bright little golden stars
would come down to me from heaven
with words to end my cares.
But none of them know my sorrow,
one only has played her part,
for she indeed has broken,
my poor heart.
9.
The flutes and fiddles are playing
the trumpets flourish and bray.
The girl that I loved is dancing
is this then her wedding day?
with all the piping and droning
and drumming that fills the air.
I hear the sobbing and groaning
of angels in dark despair.
10.
If little songs remind me
of those she used to sing.
With anguish my heart is breaking
wild thoughts and grief they bring.
And driven by darkest longing
to hillside woods I climb,
and there dissolves in weeping
this deepest grief of mine.
11.
A boy once loved a maiden,
she sighed for another instead,
but he in turn loved another
and soon he was happily wed.
The maiden felt rejected
and without care or heed,
she wed the next man to woo her,
the first boy was hurt indeed.
It is a familiar story
but stays for ever new
and every time it happens
it breaks the heart in two.
12.
Alone on a summer morning,
sadly the garden I roam.
Around me the flowers are whispering
I walk in silence on.
The flowers are still whispering together
they know how wretched I am.
'Please bear our sister no malice
you pale and so sorrowful man'.
13.
I wept as I was dreaming
a grave was your resting place.
Then I awoke, and a tear drop
rolled down my trembling face
I wept as I was dreaming
I dreamt you were gone from me,
Then I awoke, and remembering,
wept long and bitterly.
I wept as I was dreaming,
I dreamt that your heart was still true.
Then I awoke, and teardrops
flowed from my eyes anew.
14.
Each night time I see you in my dreams,
and there you are smiling, kindly
and sobbing loudly through my tears
I fall before you blindly.
And sadly your eyes gaze into mine,
and shaking your head as if recalling,
and stealing slowly from your eyes
like pearls the tears are falling.
You whisper softly a secret word
and gave me the cypress wreath as a token.
Then I awoke, and the wreath
is gone, the word I have forgotten.
15.
Old Fairy tales entice us to
come with beckoning hand.
There's singing and there's ringing
as from a magic land.
Where many flowers are blooming
in golden eventide
and sweetly scented glow
like the face of every bride.
And green trees are singing
the tunes forgotten long
and breezes softly murmur
to birds melodious song.
And misty shapes appearing
are rising from the ground,
they dance in airy circles
in chorus round and round.
And sapphire sparks are burning
on every leaf and twig
and bright red lights are
skipping a weird confusing jig.
Loud springs rush out from marble
and wildly rush downstream
as strangely on those rivers
the weird reflections gleam
Ah, if I could only go there
to free my heart from pain
so I could end my torment
and peace and joy regain.
I dream of that dear country
a land to make my home,
but comes the morning sun
dissolving dreams like foam.
16.
The bad old songs are gone now,
the painful dreams are past.
Its time they now were buried,
fetch me a coffin vast.
So much I lay inside it,
but what, I'll not say yet.
The coffin must be larger
than Heidelberg's great vat.
And fetch me a funeral carriage
with timbers thick and strong.
It must be even larger
than the bridge at Mainz is long.
And now I need twelve giants
the strongest of all their race,
as strong as Saint Christopher
in Cologne's most holy place.
The coffin they now shall carry
to plunge in the ocean's wave,
for such a mighty coffin
deserves a mighty grave.
So now you know the reason
the coffin was so vast.
I'm drowning all my love there,
so all my grief is past